


magnetic love

by xiuchens



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Flirty Minseok, Fluff, M/M, Mentioned Byun Baekhyun, Mentioned Kim Joonmyun | Suho, Romance, Slight Side Chansoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-24 00:36:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12001260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiuchens/pseuds/xiuchens
Summary: There were no laws of physics that could explain what kind of force kept pulling Jongdae and Minseok together. There was also no fighting the universe when it seemed so intent in keeping them together. (But maybe Jongdae has to help a bit eventually)





	magnetic love

There were no laws of physics that could explain what kind of force kept pulling Jongdae and Minseok together. There was also no fighting the universe when it seemed so intent in keeping them together.

 

It started as a mere coincidence, as next door neighbors on their college dorm, not that they were friends or anything, just friendly neighbors who tried their best to keep it to themselves as to not disturb the other. Jongdae was in the Literature department, Minseok in Mathematics, so they didn't even have classes together or anything to talk about. Minseok was hot? Sure, there was no denying. Jongdae would want to hit that? Very likely. But they were like stars orbiting different planets who happened to cross each other from afar very occasionally, so there wasn't even a chance for that to happen.

 

Minseok graduated first and moved away and Jongdae had a new next door neighbor, his old one soon forgotten.

 

And then Jongdae graduated, and soon enough started teaching at a local high school. When he came in for his first day it was surprising to see his former college neighbor there, all grown up in his Math teacher jeans and smart button up, instead of the usual training clothes he sported during his student days. They greeted each other amicably, but didn't go much further than exchanging the socially acceptable “how have you been?” and “it's nice seeing you here”.

 

.

 

From then on Jongdae started to notice Minseok everywhere. Literally everywhere. The school was a given since they both worked there, but the convenience store near his apartment, the dentist waiting room and even the post office also kept making they run into each other. When Jongdae drove a friend to the airport, he met Minseok there. “My parents were going on vacation,” he mentioned the next day at school and Jongdae just nodded in acknowledgement.

 

The fifth time Jongdae meets Minseok at the gym, in completely different days and hours, he seriously starts wondering if the other is a stalker. They had already crossed the land of possibilities and coincidences, now it's just getting into creepy territory.

 

“Hey, long time no see,” Minseok jokes when they happen to cross paths at a bookstore not remotely close to the school or their houses. Jongdae finds it weird but tries to reason with himself. He's being paranoid, probably, Minseok sounds like a decent person who wouldn't stalk him and- oh my god he's getting killed by Minseok in a park at night soon and there's no way he can avoid his faith, Minseok will keep a strand of his hair in a shoebox under his bed as a trophy and this is all just a very elaborate plot to get rid of Jongdae and-

 

“Are you okay? You look pale, like you just saw a ghost?”, Minseok is closer to him now and from this distance he doesn't look crazy so maybe Jongdae will live another day. “Do you need some water?”

 

He manages to blurt out an “I'm okay” before Minseok drags him by the arm and sits him down at the bookstore cafe. Jongdae repeats himself, saying he's just okay and Minseok shouldn't worry.

 

“I'm meeting a friend here but if you need a ride home or to the hospital I can cancel my plans,” the older teacher says and Jongdae can see the worry in his eyes as he does.

 

“Are you stalking me?” Jongdae says, trying to sound anything but scared.

 

'I- what?” Minseok stares at him like it's the funniest thing he ever heard in his whole life. “Did you hit your head or something?”

 

“I'm serious and I need an answer. If you're gonna murder me at the park at night and cut a strand of my hair I just want to know why. Why me?”

 

“I'm not a stalker. Why would I be stalking you?”, Minseok was laughing and now he looked a little bit crazy. “You're the one always showing up at places where I'm already at so I should be the one asking you this. Are you stalking me, Kim Jongdae?”

 

In retrospect Minseok was right. Jongdae went to college two years after Minseok was already there, he went teaching in the same school Minseok already did, and even today, he got to the bookstore while Minseok was going through the bookshelves. If anyone should be worried it wasn't him.

 

“I'm not a stalker,” he defended himself quickly.

 

“I know, I'm just messing with you.” Minseok was still laughing. “You really thought I was stalking you? You're funny.”

 

“In my defense I am pretty cute and small and you look like you could easily take me in a fight so I'm the perfect victim,” Jongdae wasn't sure why he was giving a potential serial killer all this info.

 

“You're really loud when you scream so it wouldn't be advisable to kill you in the middle of the park,” Minseok reasons.

 

“I don't know if that should make me relieved or more worried, considering you actually took the time to ponder about killing me in the park.”

 

“Listen, if I wanted to murder you I would've done it in college when your friends came over and you all kept screaming while I was trying to study. Or when your boyfriend came over and you didn't realize how loud you were being,” Minseok grinned at his own words, Jongdae furiously blushing. “You're cute indeed, Kim Jongdae.”

 

For the first time in years Jongdae was at a loss of what to say.

 

“But it's all good now, we all graduated and you're probably not as loud with your boyfriend anymore. We all grow up.” Minseok looks handsome from this up close and Jongdae hates himself for thinking about that at this exact moment. And did Minseok just call him cute?

 

“You're welcome to grab coffee with me and my friend and maybe he'll convince you I'm not a stalker. Perhaps you know him to from college? Kim Junmyeon?”

 

Jongdae only nods affirmatively as Minseok sits next to him.

 

“I don't have a boyfriend” Jongdae seriously needs to stop volunteering information like this, but at that moment it seemed important that Minseok knew.

 

“No boyfriend, huh? And you don't have a stalker too. Where's the excitement in your life?”

 

“I have a goldfish?”

 

“You're truly boring, no wonder no one is stalking you for a strand of hair.”

 

Junmyeon shows up and the three of them make decent conversation even if Jongdae wants to leave because he feels like intruding. Minseok tells him Jongdae is only allowed to leave after he does, to avoid stalking accusations.

 

.

 

After that he gets used to seeing Minseok everywhere, hell, he even enjoys seeing Minseok everywhere. He also gets used to Minseok teasing him whenever they meet in the most random places like a toy store on a saturday morning (“I have a niece!” Jongdae explains, “Oh, I thought you were stalking me because you wanted me to buy you Iron Man toys” Minseok jokes and Jongdae laughs because he actually wouldn’t mind that).

 

On monday Jongdae finds a small Iron Man figurine taped to his school locker on teacher’s lounge, with a little note that says “to my favorite stalker”. His heart does backflips inside his chest.

 

.

 

Jongdae is tired. The end of his first semester as a teacher is quickly approaching and there’s tons of tests to be graded, papers to be read and he’s honestly exhausted of the same Romeo and Juliet analysis clearly taken from the movie instead of the book. Teenagers can be really dumb sometimes.

 

His thing with Minseok, if can even be called that, hasn’t moved forward, mostly due to Jongdae’s inability to act like a normal human being around the older teacher ever since he saw Minseok being way too close with other people on more than one occasion. He knows he has no right of being jealous but the green monster is constantly feeding his thoughts. Minseok flirts with him a lot and they keep running into each other more often than not, but still Jongdae can’t bring himself to properly ask Minseok on a date because he’s kinda of a coward. Instead he'd rather sit at home and sulk because things aren’t going his way, as every adult should have the right to do. His best friend Baekhyun thinks he’s being an idiot.

 

And quite frankly he knows Baekhyun is right.

 

.

 

There were no laws of physics that could explain what kind of force kept pulling Jongdae and Minseok together. Even when Jongdae was trying to fight back because an unrequited crush was not what he was looking for right now. Especially not one he had to see every day at work and then some more whenever he went outside his apartment on weekends.

 

He's completely convinced Minseok is dating someone else while flirting with him for fun. Maybe after he's not a serial killer, but a serial flirter, determined to make Jongdae suffer from sexual frustration. He tries to ignore the other man but as soon as Minseok smiles at him he forgets what he was supposed to be doing and his heart does those weird laps, and honestly he should be used to this by now. Minseok is actually a witch and got him under his spell, that's the only logical explanation. Jongdae believes in mystical things as long as they work in his favor.

 

.

 

Christmas and New Year's come and go and Jongdae finds himself back at the school on a cold morning, trying to rub off the sleep from his eyes. As soon as he steps foot on the teacher's lounge he scans the room intently. No sign of Minseok anywhere. The time for his class approaches and Jongdae makes his way to the classroom. The whole day he keeps trying to find Minseok, but catches no glimpse of the older man anywhere. This goes on for three days and Jongdae starts going crazy. No Minseok in the hallways, no Minseok in his classroom, no Minseok in the parking lot waving him goodbye.

 

On the fourth day Minseok doesn't show up Jongdae decides to ask around. He's still fairly awkward with some of the other teachers but this is a matter of the utmost importance. He takes a few steps ahead in the general direction of Kyungsoo, one of the other math teachers. They've spoken a few times but Kyungsoo is just as new as him so they're both still adjusting to the whole ordeal. Jongdae approaches him with a greeting and asks how the holidays went. Kyungsoo politely says he had a good time and asks Jongdae the same thing. He goes on rambling a bit about his niece and his mom’s cooking but Kyungsoo starts chuckling.

 

“I know you didn't come here to ask me about the holidays.” Kyungsoo has an amused expression on his face and Jongdae is mortified. “He's down with the flu, it's pretty bad and I think he'll only return next week.”

 

Jongdae opens his mouth to ask Kyungsoo how did he know, but he's not sure he wants to hear the answer to that. Then his mind wanders to Minseok, all alone in his apartment, sick, no one to care for him.

 

“Do you have his address?” The question pops out before Jongdae can stop himself.

 

Kyungsoo still looks amused. “I have his phone number. But if you're desperate you could always ask for it at the human resources office? The guy who works there is kinda dumb sometimes but he believes in true love.”

 

“How would you even know that?”

 

“He believes it enough when I tell him that I love him.” Kyungsoo says almost in a whisper, winking at Jongdae.

 

After the awkward and enlightening encounter with Kyungsoo, Jongdae has to head back to his classroom,  but as soon as the alarm signaling the end of the school day rings he's out almost as fast as his students. Human resources guy is a tall lanky man called Chanyeol, a beam of happy energy that always enthusiastically greets Jongdae even if they only ever exchanged a few words.

 

“Kyungsoo told me you'd drop by. Here's the info you need.” He hands Jongdae a piece of paper, an address neatly scribbled on it. “To be honest I shouldn't be doing this but I can't stand in the way of true love.”

 

Jongdae wants to laugh at the word 'love’ being so carelessly thrown around but even if he doesn't love Minseok right now, he knows it's only a matter of time before he does. “Thank you Chanyeol, I owe you. Whenever there's something I can do for you let me know.”

 

The other just waves him off as Jongdae almost trips over himself in his hurry to go. As he’s entering his car Jongdae figures he can't show up out of nowhere, empty-handed, only with his flimsy excuse of how he got Minseok's address. He considers his next move when an idea pops in his head and he grabs his phone before dialing Baekhyun.

 

“Hey, I need a favor. Are you still in touch with that guy from college who worked with you at the cafe? The physics major?”

 

It was a long shot but if anyone would keep in touch with random people, that would be Baekhyun. And to Jongdae’s luck, he did.

 

.

 

He knocks three times after five minutes debating with himself if this was a good idea or not. It wasn't, but Jongdae went for it anyway.

 

Minseok opens the door, nose red and face tired, a white, red and blue blanket (that Jongdae later identified as a Captain America blanket) around his shoulders. The sight is almost endearing if Minseok didn't look like shit.

 

“I brought porridge and a few movies to cheer you up!” Jongdae said fast, before it evwn occurred to Minseok to ask what was he doing there and how he'd gotten his address. Minseok seemed confused but allowed him to go inside anyway.

 

“What movies?” He asks while Jongdae is taking off his shoes. “If it's something bad you can leave right now.”

 

Jongdae hands him two DVDs, “Aladdin” and “Toy Story”, and Minseok looks at him with a puzzled expression. Jongdae only smiles his most blinding and innocent smile, the one he knows can make people weak, but Minseok just looks mostly disoriented. “Okay, I asked Junmyeon, no need to look so confused.”

 

“You asked Junmyeon for my address and favorite comfort movies just so you could come here with porridge because I'm sick?” Minseok lays him open just like that. Even with his nose running a little he was still the most attractive thing Jongdae has ever seen, and he keeps losing focus.

 

“I only asked him about the movies, really.” Jongdae defends himself with some delay, and only a second later he realizes his words make him look even worse.

 

“And to think you were concerned about me stalking you, when you're the one who's stalking me. You're really something, Kim Jongdae.” Minseok doesn't sound annoyed, but rather amused by the whole situation. “Do you want a strand of my hair as souvenir?” His voice is hoarse and Jongdae didn't even pay attention to anything else because down with the flu Minseok sounds sexy and really, he shouldn't be having these thoughts. They're still standing awkwardly behind the door and Minseok is laughing so Jongdae laughs too.

 

Minseok gestures for him to take the couch, while he takes one of the movies and put it on the DVD player. He doesn't sit close to Jongdae, and they're half way through the movie when Minseok finally speaks again.

 

“How did you get Junmyeon’s number?”

 

“He worked with my best friend during college, and as luck would have it they're still in touch.”

 

“I'm definitely calling the police on you.”

 

.

  


_A month later_

 

“Don't be a baby, this is good for you.” Minseok held the spoon that contained a pretty green liquid that despite its beauty did not smell any good.

 

“I'd rather die than having to take this again.” Jongdae was under three blankets, his nose so red it made him look like one of Santa's reindeers, as Minseok so kindly put it. “It's gross.”

 

Minseok huffed in annoyance. “If you take this I'll give you a kiss,” he tempts Jongdae, who promptly takes the bait, jumping on his seat and downing the green thing without a second thought, before puckering his lips while trying to look cute. “I never said I would give you a kiss right now.” Minseok pushes his face away.

 

There was no force on Earth that could keep Minseok and Jongdae apart, even when one of them was down with the grossest flu. Jongdae drapes himself around Minseok, ignoring his boyfriends complaints that he would get sick too.

 

“I can't, it's like I'm Iron Man and you're a magnet. I can't leave because I'm too weak against you.”

 

Maybe that's ultimately the physical phenomena that explains them. Jongdae would have to ask renowned physicist Kim Junmyeon later.

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from EXO-CBX's "Miss You". Ever since I heard the song I keep thinking about 'magnetic love' and this is the result.


End file.
